Sunrise
by Coletterby
Summary: If John had left Magneto and Bobby and Kitty had left the mansion, how would X3 have turned out? RYRO!
1. Chapter 1

Needless to say Rogue was upset. First John left, then Bobby dumped her for Kitty, then they left for god knows where without even saying goodbye. She hugged her arms to herself. She felt like she repelled guys rather than attracted them or rather at the same time. She attracted guys whilst their inner voices told them to run away and then, just when Rogue began to open up to them, they listened to that voice and ran. And then there was pain. Just pain.

She was sitting on the roof again. She often came up here to think, not very many other places at the mansion offered this kind of solitude. Even her room wasn't a place to hide in. But the roof, it was perfect. She had come to know all the stars in the heavens above her and was gradually beginning to be able to tell how late it was by the stars. Most days she was still up here to watch the sunrise. No one ever noticed she was gone, who was there to notice? She mused.

Everyone who might've noticed is long gone. Even Logan's gone again. Off on his everlasting quest to find the truth about himself. Maybe she should do that someday. Go downstairs steal Scott's bike and ride away into the sunrise. The sunset was too over rated for Rogue. She loved the sun rise because she thought it was like her, every morning filling with new hope. The others had begun to call her the ice princess but, she thought to herself, surely the ice would melt in the morning sun? Again she wondered what it was that put people off about her. Ok, the clothes, she could understand how the clothes might put people off but there were many kids at the mansion with weird fashion taste. She was always polite to people, she tried to contain her anger and always show people her pleasant side so that couldn't be it. It must be her powers. She'd only used them once at the mansion, to heal herself when Logan stabbed her, but somehow everyone seemed to think that made her a murderous, vengeance loving bitch. She wasn't. At least she hoped she wasn't. She looked up once more at the rising sun and shrugged. No matter. This was a new day you never know, it might be different.

Hi people I decided to start a new story for randomness sake. I've decided to make Rogue a lot more happy and hopeful than she usually is so apologies if that confused you. This story's goin to be based during the start of X3 so the news of the "cure" hasn't reached the mansion. Please review cuz I don't actually know if I'm goin to continue this or just make it a one shot. shrugs . please tell me what you think. If you think its awful tell me that as well however I will warn you you may possibly end up with hate mail if you review something really mean lol.

Anyways

Love you lots like hold fish soup

Coletterby xx

Ps the other chapters (if I do write them) will be longer than this!


	2. Chapter 2

Hello to anyone out there who decides to read this story. I got bored and decided that I might as well continue this little thing because it was better than revising for exams (that I'm going to fail so really, whats the point?) thank you to my one reviewer you made my day! Anyway on with the story

By the time Rogue climbed down from the roof she had another hour before class began. As she sneaked in the window she decided it was probably a good thing that she didn't have a room mate. For one thing she had no one to question her about where she went at night … and she didn't have to share a bathroom. She closed the curtains and headed for the shower.

When she finished getting dressed she looked into the mirror and a fearful sight looked back at her. The past few weeks hadn't been kind to Rogue, the huge black bags under her eyes emphasised the paleness of her skin, and her flesh seemed to hang off her face. She'd lost weight again. Rogue didn't put much time aside for eating, she wasn't anorexic or anything but eating just took up too much time that she could be doing something else in. 'Yeah, like sitting in the bedroom alone doing fuck all!' said a nasty voice in the back of her head. As usual she ignored it and as she went to walk out of the room she paused for a second and looked back at the scary face in the mirror, maybe it wasn't _just_ her powers that put people off.

As she walked down the hallway people went out of their way to avoid her. Every morning it was the same, as soon as she left the safety of her room people began to walk the other way as soon as they saw her and if they couldn't walk the other way they hugged the wall as she approached and refused to meet her eyes. Rather than hate the walk to class Rogue actually enjoyed it. When she knew no one meet her eyes she could study them till her heart was content. She knew more about the people in the mansion than even the professor probably knew. She seemed to have a natural knack for finding out secrets, like she knew that the girl who just walked past with the multicoloured hair regularly got out of class to make out with 'boy with three eyes who likes peanuts' because she was afraid to see him around other people in case they found out she liked him. She also knew that before Bobby left he was having great trouble controlling his powers and regularly woke up in a room full of icicles.

She enjoyed studying the people yet remaining apart from them, it meant she knew everything that a person's best friend would know but didn't have to put up with having to hold a conversation with them. The Professor had once asked her to show one of the new people around (there seemed to be an awful lot of them now) and she couldn't keep up with the conversation because of the other voices in her head. Eventually the new girl had stalked off to find "someone who actually paid attention to her misery of a life". For some reason the Professor never asked her to show anyone around again.

She opened the door to Scott's classroom and wound her way through the maze of desks to one near the back at the window. Scott had begun teaching a little over two months after Jean had died. Before that he had spent the time either in their old room or in his car (Logan had once again stolen his bike). On the rare occasions that you saw him back then he always had a shell shocked expression on his face and moved like a sleep walker.

The classroom slowly filled up with other pupils, all sitting at least two tables away from her. She watched this with mild amusement, every time this happened in a class she had the same imagined scene in her head.

_One of the pupils sits within a three metre radius and turns around to smile at Rogue who has just ripped off her face to reveal a scaly green monster. Rogue immediately pounces on the other pupil and starts to tear her apart and eat her internal organs._

Rogue put a hand to her mouth to stifle the laughter that had bubbled up while the newly arrived Scott shot her a glare. She looked apologetic for a moment before dissolving into laughter again. The people closest to her began to move their desks away which naturally made her laugh more. Scott looked at her in disbelief. "Rogue, please leave the classroom and don't come back until you've got a grip of yourself."

'I have got a grip of myself, i'm just waiting for someone to sit close enough' She thought to herself, which immediately resulted in more uncontrollable laughter. She got up and began to walk to the front of the class deliberately walking very close to Scott to watch him flinch away. Her laughter stopped abruptly when he did and she glared at him with her glowing green eyes. She kept his gaze for a moment longer before turning and striding out of the classroom. Scott, meanwhile, leaned against the blackboard and wiped his forehead, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to piss Rogue off.

'Now what?" thought Rogue. She had succeed in getting herself kicked out of class, pissing off Scott and terrifying much of the class. Not that bad for under a minute's work. She now had the rest of the period to herself and the free after that. Lets see, I could go grab a coffee in town, no money, shopping, ditto, I could just go back to my room?

She knew she was going to end up doing that anyway but she needed to give herself the option of not doing it. Great, now she sounded schizophrenic. 'Ah well, I'm already thought to be a deluded psychopath might as well be schizo too!' She shook her head to clear her head. Maybe she'd go out into the grounds, just for a change. Yes that's whatI'll do. She felt like sticking her tongue out at herself but decided that would be too wierd so shoulders back and head straight she strode outside.

I know it's a bit random but then so am I! I'll try and update soon(if I get any reviews hint hint) and hopefully slightly insane and quite happy Rogue will be back!

Is it just me or did that sound vaguely like a threat?


	3. Chapter 3

"That is IT!" I shouted 

"No that is not it," came the calm reply. "I will tell you when that is it, and this is not it."

"Don't think I'm not serious Magneto, I am sick and tired of just sitting on my arse doing nothing! You promised me action, you promised me the chance to blow something up every once in a while and you haven't delivered. And now I'm refusing to take part in your war, go and find some other gullible pyromaniac because this one is no longer for sale!"

I felt everything that was metal around me move as Mags tried to find something on me to manipulate. I praised the gods that I had had the foresight to both remove my metal lighter and have an everlasting flame built for myself. It's a ball of fire that sits in a glass ball beside my wrist that I keep alive. It gives me something to play with without having to keep my metal lighter on me. He threw the metal chair at me but I sent out a blaze of fire hot enough to make it molten and fall to my feet.

"Don't do this magneto, even you can't stand in the face of my fire," he tried again but this time I dodged it and sent my flames at Mystique instead. The smell of burning flesh filled the room and while Mystique shrieked, I made my escape, running flat out through the doors, grabbing my bag that I had left outside, and fled the building, shedding fire as I ran.

When I got outside I looked back up at the burning building and saw a metal sphere fly out of the back of it. _That definitely wasn't good_, I thought. I turned to my heel and sprinted away knowing that Magneto wouldn't take this slight easily.

For a while I wandered aimlessly, undecided on what to do next. I had spent my time planning my escape from Magneto but I had never thought on what to do next. Generally because every version of escape ended with me dead, imprisoned or sold to slavery. I was startled to find myself laughing softly. Since joining Mags I thought I had forgotten how to do that. I was a loner when I was younger and I was a loner when I was with Mags but whenever I joined the mansion a girl with striped hair taught me to laugh. The thought of Rogue left a sweet taste in my mouth and my memories of her gave me a rush of pleasure.

Suddenly I was decided on where to go.

Apologies for taking so long to update but for once it honestly wasn't my fault! First I was away on holiday and then when I got back my dad broke the phone line and _then_ we had to move the computer so we could get the house decorated! It was terrible, I'm actually dreading looking at my inbox! Ah well

As per usual please review! I love getting feedback from people I've never met but who've decided to read my story anyway so kisses to everyone

Coletterby

xx


	4. Chapter 4

hey everyone, i'm sorry bout this chapter being so late but everything just seemed to pick the month of August to happen in. i got my results and then had to try and find a place in uni and then went on holiday and then the computer broke down and then i got a laptop that hates me (it doesn't like me to type and it is also determined to have my backround be a picture of the word dell shudders. anyway thanks for bearing with me and don't forget to review cuz i love reviews and i like to eat them for breakfast. it makes breakfast in bed so much less messy. :p lol

coletterby xx

'Wow this is interesting' Rogue thought as she walked around the lifeless grounds. Look there's a tree and there's a dead flower and there's yawn. It was all just sooooo incredibly boring. 'Even my room was more interesting!'

She came out to beside the lake and decided to sit down. It conserved more energy that way. The sun glittered across the surface, sending miniature rainbows across the nearby grass.

She remembered the time Bobby had frozen it for her in an attempt to get her to learn how to ice-skate. A move he later used on Kitty she remembered _to cheer her up_ he had said. An emotion went through her that felt alarmingly like anger. That was the first time he had kissed her "apparently". Rogue didn't believe him. Bobby had been one of the last few people who actually made an attempt to be anywhere near her and she hadn't known Kitty at all. She had, however, been keeping a close eye on the girl ever since she had begun flirting shamelessly with Bobby. The girl had been getting out of bed later and later and always had huge bags under her eyes and a huge grin on her face. She had known something was up between the two when she noticed Bobby leaving her room at seven o'clock in the morning. She clenched her fists and a stream of fire flew from her.

"EEK!" she jumped back from the now steaming water and looked down at her hands and was surprised to see them unscathed. "What the hell!"

(A/N there was supposed to be a line of stars across here but the computer keeps deleting them so i'll type them instead star star star etc)

The walk back to the mansion had taking the guts of a week. John had stayed away from trains and buses and had hitched most of the way to avoid being followed. The last few miles to the mansion though were done by his own two feet. He was tired, he was smelly and he swore he must have packed bricks into his bag, still whenever he saw the mansion he smiled grimly to himself, he definitely wasn't going to get a warm welcome here.

He had heard about Jean from Mags and had decided then not to come back, he knew that it would somehow be construed as "all his fault". He waltzed past the 'welcome to the mansion' sign and kept walking. He wasn't here for the mansion, he was here to see Rogue. He hoped that visiting was still allowed and that he was fast enough to avoid all the X-men in one go.

He found himself grinning this time as he swung his leg over the fence and dropped to the ground in the forest. He wandered towards the pool in the forest in the hopes of glimpsing Bobby. Back when he had lived in the mansion it was one of Bobby's favorite places to bring a pretty girl. Despite popular rumors he did actually miss his ex best friend. He was a decent mate and one of the few people John had actually connected with. He didn't make friends easily and was surprised to find that the iceman had managed to worm his way into that category.

He rounded the last of the tall oaks to stand near the lake and was surprised to see a burst of flames and a high pitched scream being emitted by Rogue who was standing with her back to him, "What the hell!"

"It's the first sign of madness to talk to yourself Rogue," he stated. Rogue jumped around and a ball of flames shot towards him. He dived to one side. "What the hell!"

"See, that's what I said," she said making a 'so there' hand gesture which she dropped as soon as she saw who she was facing. "…John?"


	5. Chapter 5

yet again everyone i am really sorry that this update took so long. i wrote half of it on my laptop a quarter of it on my uni's computer and another quarter on a piece of paper that i put in my jeans pocket and forgot about. so technically it wasn't my fault. it was my jeans' fault for stealing and hiding the last section of this.

hopefully you'll like it

coletterby xx

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"…John?" Rogue ventured carefully. She took an unconscious step towards him but when she noticed what she was doing she quickly took it back. "Please don't tell me mags sent you here to kidnap me. I mean he's tried it twice now and the routine is getting old." she suddenly realized that she was speaking to the man who had ditched her and her face hardened. "If you take another step towards me I will drain the life out of you. If you turn around and leave now I won't tell anyone about this but otherwise I'm screaming for help."

John felt himself shudder under her hypnotic gaze but quickly shook it off to respond. "I'm not here to kidnap you Rogue. I don't work for Magneto anymore. I just came back to see you." He looked at her, pleading with his eyes for her to believe him. She looked at him for a minute and then nodded.

"just give me two seconds," John's forehead crinkled in confusion as Rogue held up a finger in a 'wait right here' gesture. She turned her back on him. "PROFESSOR!"

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Ororo, could you please go down and invite our visitor in before Rogue kills him?"

Ororo looked up her paper work surprised, before nodding and quickly flying over to the forest where the teens were bickering furiously.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Why'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Yell for the Professor?"

"hmmmmmmmm, let me think about this for a second. Just one second. One of Magneto's lackeys (Magneto that tried to kill me, just to clarify) just creeped up on me when I was alone in the forest, in the middle of nowhere, and you want to know why I yelled for the Professor?! I mean before I doubted you're intelligence John but now I know you're just plain screwed in the head!"

"HEY! ... well I suppose it does sound quite bad when you put it like that. I mean yes Magneto has tried to kill you (note the word tried) and yes on two separate occasions he did try to kidnap you (but technically only in one did he succeed) and yes I was one of mags lackey's (though I resent that term) but honestly I'm just here to see you." He met her steely glare with a pleading look. "What will it take to convince you of that?"

"Nothing, not even if I drained you would I believe you. I've touched you before but the feelings I got from that were LIES!" the air around them began to chill rapidly. "If you can lie through your memories then you can definitely lie through your teeth!" a icicle shot from the palm of her outthrust hand towards John only to be stopped by a bolt of lightening from a quick thinking Storm.

"ROGUE!" Storm landed between them. "What are you doing?"

"Avoiding having to go through the whole damsel in distress routine because Magneto wants to kill me again and is using one of my old best friends to do it!" Rogue said through gritted teeth.

"Rogue, for once John is telling the truth. The Professor sent me down to stop you form doing something incredibly stupid,"

"Like this," agreed John.

Rogue glared at him. "Eek," he shrieked before ducking behind Storm again.

"Fine, do what you want with him, just keep him away from me." Rogue said in a voice colder than the slowly freezing water. With that she abruptly turned and stalked back into the forest.

Storm turned around to their shell shocked visitor. "So John, would you like to come in for some coffee?"

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

so there you go. i have updated and now i feel much better and will hopefully update within a year. or so. lol

as always read and review. if my computer's not being an idiot i usually reply to all my reviews and if i don't reply to your's you know whats happened and apologies

c u in the next chapter

coletterby xx


	6. Chapter 6

hey sorry it took me soo long to update but i'm in the middle of exams right now ... not that those two tings are actually related but i thought the fact that i'm supposedly "revising right now might mean you'll give me more sympathy... though it porbably won't and i'll look out one night from my window and see a bunch of people with pitchforks or something like that. and how i do love you people with pitchforks cuz u review my stories and make me happy!!

Anyways, on with the story!!

:O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O

'Who the hell does he think he is? What, did he expect me to welcome back with open arms after what he did? Is he reeeaaaallllyyyy that screwed in the head?' Rogue said to herself. 'Did I even have to ask that? I know he's that screwed in the head!' She heard a distant bell ring and realized it was time for her next class. 'To skip or not to skip that is the question' she thought to herself.

'Rogue I would really rather you didn't skip class as your next one is with me,' she heard the Professor say in her head.

She just had to consider skipping really loud before the Professor's period didn't she. Rogue sighed making the girl decidedly avoiding her eye beside her jump. She sighed again when she noticed this action which made the girl set off at what can only be described as a world class sprinter speed down the corridor. It just wasn't her day

Rogue decided to make up for thinking about skipping (and throwing fireballs and icicles at John) by turning up to class on time. She couldn't actually remember the last time that had happened. The being on time thing not the shooting icicles at people thing. The icicle thing was definitely a first for her otherwise she definitely would have used it on Bobby before he left. 'Or intentionally to John rather than accidentally.'

She walked into the Professor's room. It was surprisingly small but considering the number of people who took the advanced english course she wasn't that surprised. The others were there ahead of her (so much for arriving on time) so she took her seat at the very back of the class. She had been doing a lot of thinking recently about what she was gong to do at the end of the year. She had enough credits to graduate early and she planned on doing so but she was undecided about where to go next.

For the past year she had been finishing her PGCE course (a/n I don't know if this is how you get to be a teacher in America but it is here) and once she had completed her studies at the mansion she would be qualified to teach High level english and maybe a few of the lower level courses as well! She wondered if the Professor would give her a job at the mansion…

She suddenly became aware of the whole class being deathly quiet. She looked up and saw the Professor looking directly into her eyes. She visibly jumped before calming herself with a few deep breathes.

"Rogue were you listening to what I just said?" said the Professor in his if-you-answer-no-you-will-go-to-detention voice.

Rogue opened her mouth to reply in the affirmative and was as shocked as the rest of the class whenever very different words came out of her mouth. "Of course I'm not Charles. Am I likely to listen to such babble about books I read as they first came out into publication? Do not be so stupid my old friend though truthfully I don't see why you are wasting your time teaching these children about human english when I will soon replace it with the mutant language."

Suddenly all the desks in the room started vibrating and lifted into the air alongside Charles' wheelchair. 'wait,' Rogue thought. 'Who is Charles?' it was that random thought that suddenly warned Rogue that she wasn't in control of her body or her mind.

"Well, I never thought it would be so easy to remove you from this earth Charles. After all you are not very likely to harm this young girls body now, are you?"

'No!' screamed Rogue from a place deep within her mind where she had been shoved. She fought her way through the other people in her mind and finally pushed to the very front beside Magneto. 'I can't let you do this!' she yelled at him.

'And how exactly are you going to stop me dear?' he said barely glancing away from his 'old friend'.

'By doing this,' and then she did the thing she least suspected herself to do. She closed her eyes and concentrated. In her mind suddenly appeared a door right behind where Magneto was standing.

'My dear, if you expect me to just stop what I'm doing and go through that door you are sorely deceived.' he replied without looking over his shoulder to look at her.

'That's why I've got them.' Magneto looked over his shoulder in time to see Wolverine and Bobby step forward and grab his arms. Together they forced him through the door and carefully locked it, handing Rogue the key. She turned to thank them but they were gone and she was now staring at a completely destroyed classroom instead.

How the hell was she going to explain this.

:O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O

For some reason he wasn't quite sure of, John followed Ororo into the kitchen and watched her make some tea. Sitting back in his old seat at the island, he listened to her rambling as she moved around the kitchen. She was telling him all about what had happened beginning with Rogue and Bobby and everyone else and anyone else. For some reason it felt like a version of a delaying tactic but John didn't mind that much, it was nice to get caught up. Though whenever he heard about Bobby cheating on Rogue with Kitty he stood bolt upright.

"I'll kill him." he all but growled as he leapt for the stairs but Ororo raised up a hand stop him.

"You won't find him up there." She looked tired as she said it. "About a week after Bobby and Rogue broke up, he and Kitty headed for parts unknown with one of the Professor's gold credit cards."

He sighed happily at the thoughts of what he and Bobby used to use those credit cards but then a thought hit him. "Bobby left? What? Why would he do that?"

"Well Kitty said something about uncontrollable power but we never worked out who that referred to or if it referred to anything at all! Bobby claimed he wanted to travel around a bit, "Away from this madhouse" he said." Ororo looked down glumly when she said it.

"What aren't you saying?" John asked her. He had picked up a vague sixth sense type thing from hanging around with Magneto too much. He hated being lied to.

"Well, since Bobby and Kitty left not many people talked to Rogue anymore and she began to gain a reputation." John raised his eyebrows at that. "Not _that_ sort of reputation! Just a reputation for being a nobody who was out to get everybody … but its not that bad." She finished quickly sensing John's instant anger.

"It's not that bad to have a reputation about being out to get everybody!! How is that not bad! Please tell me your definition of 'Not Bad' cuz it clearly doesn't line up with what everybody uses it to mean!!" John all but yelled.

Ororo stayed seated not liking the glimpse of flame that she saw in John's eyes as he yelled. After several minutes he calmed down and sat back in his long forgotten chair. "Rogue has begun to scare the pupils. To my knowledge they all try to avoid her if possible. No one sits near her in classes. One of the new pupils actually claimed that she sat next to Rogue in class one day and Rogue made her pass out. Mr McCoy later discovered the girl had given blood earlier that day and not eaten anything before or after it but the damage was done. The student grapevine went into overtime spreading the stories of Rogue attacking people just for the fun and by the time any of the staff members heard about it the damage was done and the students were all terrified of her."

Ororo was pleased that John seemed to be taking this a little better until he opened his eyes and she saw an inferno raging in them. She was so captivated by them that she barely noticed he was speaking.

"Can I stay here for a bit then? I think I can probably help with the whole Rogue-hate situation …" he paused looking a little nervous.

"And???" Ororo encouraged

"And Magneto is probably not all that happy that I'm not still on team destroy-the-world." John looked up with puppy dog eyes, the effect only slightly marred by the blaze inside them.

"I'm sure that'll be fine but we'll go check with the Professor first. Though I can see no reason why he wouldn't let you stay. I think he has Rogue's class now anyway."


	7. Chapter 7

Coletterby appears onstage to several rotten tomatoes and a large lettuce covered in tomato sauce being flung at her. *

I am really really really really sorry for not updating this in a while *cough * two year *cough * but i've been ridiculously busy ... and i kept forgetting. if it helps you forgive me i haven't updated any story in about that long and this is the first one i am continuing. it is a decently long, for me, chapter so i'm hoping that will make up for the fact i think i was still in uni when i last updated.

once again i'm ridiculously sorry about the delay. please review even if it's only to tell me how much i suck for not updating. Now without further ado, the chapter ...

* * *

Rogue stared around the class in absolute horror. Everything that had been made of metal had been flung against the walls including the desks and chairs containing the few other members of the class who took advanced English. The Professor was currently fighting his way from the remains of the blackboard he had been thrown into whilst shooting her a glance that contained too many correct guesses about what just occurred. She immediately rushed over to help but was hurt when he flinched away from her touch. She glanced at the battered students in the carnage she had created and the glares they were all sending her way and, letting out a small noise of distress, rushed out of the classroom.

She had to escape.

* * *

Meanwhile, John found himself chatting amicably to Storm as they made their way along the passage to the Professor's room. She seemed to have taken pity on him for being pursued by Magneto even if, as he had admitted to himself, it was all his fault in the first place. Leaving the Blackbird had been one of the worst mistakes of his life as not only had he ended up not being there for Rogue when she had needed him the most, but as it had also cost him the only home he had ever known. His childhood had sucked and his early teenage years hadn't changed that much as his last set of foster parents had kicked him out after they discovered the real reason why the boy hadn't lasted in a family for more than a few weeks. His mutation had been extremely difficult for him to control when he had been younger and it hadn't helped that his had developed before he even hit puberty. Any sight of fire at all would start his mutation off and he would only resume control of himself after the fire had destroyed most of what had been around him to begin with.

He had, luckily, only seriously injured one person during those periods and that had been the first time he had used them. He hadn't regained control of himself until the entire house he had been living in was burnt to the ground and he still continued to stand watching the tealight in the pumpkin on the former front step burn. His foster father had been in intensive care for several weeks after that, after which he claimed to be too ill to continue his duties as parent. John knew differently though. His foster father never met his eyes after the incident and refused to see him unless he was accompanied, he was terrified his 'demon child' would try again. After that he had been shifted from foster home to foster home, always being moved following a fire until eventually the last couple to take him in quickly turned him out again, not bothering to wait for social services to rehouse the boy.

It had been Storm who had found him after he had been on the streets for nearly a year. When she offered him a place to stay, and shown him enough credentials to prove she was legit, he had taken her up on the offer and never looked back and at the mansion he had found a place where he did belong. Where screwing up just meant apologizing, cleaning up whatever mess you made and it would become, after a while, a funny story to tell the new kids about. Where living on the streets wasn't something to be ashamed of as so many of the children had come from such backgrounds, baring even worse stories of how they got there in the first place.

When he had left the Blackbird he hadn't known he was leaving all that behind, he only knew he had to help save those children, to prove that someone cared for them and that they weren't alone anymore, but he had got turned around in the snowstorm and whenever he tried to make his way back to the Blackbird he had ended up beside the helicopter and took it as a sign.

Just another bad choice in a long run of bad choices.

As he recounted this to Storm, still not quite understanding why he felt such a need to explain himself, she nodded sympathetically to his plight, not quite forgiving him for ignoring the X-men's orders but understanding, at last, why he had done so. As he finished his narrative she had only one suggestion for him.

"I think you should tell this to Rogue," she stated, halting him in the corridor they were standing and looking him in the eye.

He sent a questioning look in response.

"She honestly thinks that the reason you left the jet was to get away from her. She believes that you joined Magneto as a statement of agreement that she should have died for his plan and that you think she's a failure for not doing so." Storm watched her words sink into the fire starter's head and the look of disbelief on his face. "I don't think she would have thought it through that far if she had been allowed a chance to grieve you before losing Bobby and Logan as well but with both of them gone she found herself trying to come to some sort of conclusion about why all three of the men in her life left her within a week of each other and the only thing she could think of was the Liberty Island thing."

John shook his head in denial but was unable to form words.

"She saw you as believing in what Magneto was selling, she thought Bobby was scared of her when he saw how close to death she brought Logan, even with his healing factor, and she decided Logan himself wanted out of his promise to look after her as she kept nearly killing him." She paused for a few moments whilst John tried to relearn to breathe. "I think it will help her when she understands the truth. Hearing that one of the conclusions she drew was false might make her doubt the other ones she's drawn. She might be able to get over Bobby's betrayal and find someone who'll love her and not be looking around to spot the next girl he can date when he's tired of his current one."

"Why are you telling me this?" asked John, finally in control of his voice again.

"Because I really believe you can help her, John. You obviously cared enough about her to cross most of the country to see her when you knew your days could be limited, to me that proves you might have it in you to be, like Jean would have said, a good guy ." She smiled softly at the remembrance of her good friend whilst John looked puzzled over the reference. "And that, is all I'm going to say on the matter."

"Now lets go tell her, and the Professor of course, that you're staying." She said striding down the corridor, John hurrying to catch up in her wake.

* * *

Rogue's hands were caressing the things in her room, running her hand over the cracked desk which Bobby had frozen and subsequently cracked, stroking the burn on the wall from where John had gotten bored and made a candle burn much hotter than it should have, patting the bag on the bed stuffed with some clothes and a few toiletries. She took a final look before making a last mental catalogue to ensure she wasn't leaving behind anything necessary before slinging it over one shoulder.

Time to go.

* * *

They rounded the corridor to the Professor's classroom just in time to catch the aftermath of Magneto's attack. The Professor was being helped from the wreckage by a telekinetic who had managed to shield himself form the worst of the flying metal, the only damage he had incurred being a thin slash across his left arm that was bleeding profusely. Storm promptly ran over to help the man whilst John began moving desks and chairs in an effort to free the people trapped underneath.

"Professor, what happened?" gasped Storm as they finally reseated the man in his wheelchair.

"Magneto, he …" the Professor struggled to think up words.

"He's here already!" yelled John. "I have to go, I can't endanger the kids by staying here if he's found me."

"He wasn't here, he was inside Rogue." replied Xavier before John tried to leave. "I couldn't do anything because all I could have done would only injure Rogue. She managed to get him under control but not quick enough to stop him from attempting to harm me."

"I knew that freak was out to get us," interjected Mark, the telekinetic.

"If she's so unstable why was she even allowed in class with the rest of us, she should be locked up!" agreed the girl John had just managed to unearth from the mess. There was a chorus agreement from the students who were uninjured enough to follow the conversation.

John looked disgusted at them, "What happened to the place where when you screwed up most people didn't even make you apologise for injuring them?"

"Listen," replied the girl still resting on his arm. "You're new here and there's one thing you should know. That girl is evil. She hates everyone, she doesn't sit with the rest of us for meals and if you sit near her in class she drains your mutation. That's her power see, she steals mutations .. And she wants to swallow them all."

"That's enough." interrupted the Professor before John could take a swing at the girl. "Rogue has provided proof against all those claims…"

"Well then, why did she try and kill us all today if they aren't true?"

The remainder of the class once again chipped in their views until John stopped the noise with a sharp hand gesture.

"You've had your say, now hear me," said John, his quiet voice directly opposing the fire that was burning in his eyes. "Rogue is one of the best people I have ever known. She has used her mutation maybe a grand total of five times and every time she did it because she had to. She saved me from killing several policemen when I lost control of my powers by taking them away from me and for that I am eternally grateful. But because of that she not only has to learn to control my powers, she has to learn to control my thoughts, because she absorbed all of them too. And not just my thoughts, the thoughts of her first boyfriend who she accidentally put into a coma, the thoughts of her next boyfriend who then cheated on her, the thoughts of the man she thought of as a father who deserted her and most terribly the thoughts of the man who tried to kill her.

"I have never once heard her complain, not even about the fact that she can't go outside her room without a full layer of clothes incase she accidentally bumps into someone in the mansion and knocks them out. Have you ever thought how it would feel to not be able to touch someone? Not be able to get a hug from a friend because you've been having a bad day, or hold hands with your boyfriend without a layer of material between you?

"Next time you decide to go off on one about Rogue I'd advise you to think twice. Apart from today I'm willing to bet she has never touched any of you, and the only reason you're injured today was because her would-be-murderer took over her body which I'm sure was just so much fun for her." He ended sardonically before leaving the girl on the ground and the rest still trapped in the mass of desks and marching to the door. He paused in the doorframe, remembering why he had needed to speak to Xavier in the first place. "Professor, I'm taking back my old room. If one of those Rogue hating jerks is in there when I arrive I'm throwing his ass out the window. You might want to inform him, and that threat goes to anyone who says anything bad about Rogue in my ear shot again." and with that, he marched out of the room.

* * *

Rogue was about to open the front door when she suddenly remembered to kids from her class. She hoped they were alright. The classroom was the one right above the entrance hall, maybe if she was quiet she could tell if any of them were really hurt.

She heard a weird crunching sound coming from right beside her but when she spun to face it the only thing there was a plant. She listened again and pinpointed the sound to be coming from one of the leaves and saw a tiny caterpillar munching the leaves.

'_Logan's ability'_ she thought to herself.

'_Thought it would be useful for you, Stripes.'_ Logan's voice replied in her head

She instantly pointed her hearing upwards, through the concrete to the room above her head.

"Rogue is one of the best people I have ever known …"

She felt tears fill her eyes as John continued his rant. Despite the fact that she had yelled at him, tattled on him and tried to stab him with a icicle without listening to what he had to say, he was still defending her. When he stormed out of the classroom, she fell to her knees and started to cry.

* * *

All done. Hopefully it won't take me another two years to update again. Thank-you everyone for sticking by me and this story.

ttyl

'Terby xx


End file.
